Right to marry and found family: a most challenged human right in post modern era

Abstract

Key human rights instruments at global and regional level guarantee the right to marry and found family. These instruments take into their fold both the individual and social components of family. Post modern social dynamics ushered in radical changes and challenges to the traditional conception of marriage and family as a matter of hetero sexual relationship with its natural procreative ability. These challenges are typically deriving support from the individual centric human rights ideology. In this background, the adoption of Resolution on Protection of Family by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2015 reaffirming the social component of the family as the natural and fundamental group unit of society and its entitlement to protection by society and the state is viewed by some as adversely impacting the acceptance of the post modern conceptions of marriage and family. This article attempts to examine the importance of marriage and family, the post modern challenges to the traditional conceptions of marriage and family, the global as well as regional responses to these challenges and the judiciousness of the critical outlook of post modern groups towards the social character of family. This article pays special attention to the criticism against the UNHRC Resolution on Protection of Family, 2015 which appeals to states to protect family as a natural and fundamental group unit of society. The Article advocates that the criticism is unwarranted and that the social character of the family needs to be rightly construed and its importance be rightly promoted.